The walk to Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium takes you past fraternity houses with couches in the yard, dorms with spray-painted bedsheets, academic buildings filled with knowledge-hungry students even on a football Saturday. (This is Georgia Tech, after all.) Sure, you’ll have to step lightly; the sidewalk is often cracked, beer cans are everywhere, and there are always random chicken wing bones to avoid. (This is Atlanta, after all.) But when you arrive at the century-plus-old concrete behemoth, you’re fully in the mood for some college football. And if it’s the last Saturday in November, you’re filled with Clean Old-Fashioned Hate.
The walk to Atlanta’s nearby Mercedes-Benz Stadium, by contrast, is wide and clean, thoughtfully designed and masterfully executed, over sidewalks pristine enough to eat chicken wings off of — not that you’ll see any. There’s a tastefully planned and regimented Tailgating Zone — sponsored by a certain Atlanta-based home improvements company, of course — and the entire experience is not unlike walking into a cathedral, almost overwhelming in its grandeur.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
